Day 7

Last night the Snorri group ended up going to "the Lebowski bar" in Reykjavik which was super crowded compared to the bars on weeknights.  Also, the bar only played older music like Brittany Spears, Madonna, disco, and other past hits from the 70s-early 2000s which were great for dancing.  The music was very different than the typical American pop and rap music played at home in bars or clubs.  After losing my hostel room key at the bar I had to sleep in the common room last night while locked out of my room until the bar found my room key the next day.

As for today, most of the excitment was around the Iceland-Argentina Fifa world cup game.  The day was packed with activites from watching the world cup game to going on a mini tour in southwest Iceland.  First a group of us headed to a downtown flea market that had candy, meat, jewelry, books, and clothes.  The jewerly selection mostly consisted of small beatufiul lava rocks in the earings, bracelets, and necklaces on sale.  After the flea market, all the Snorri participants met up at a movie theater where the football game was being shown live.  Although there were outside locations where the game could be watched, the weather was consistently raining today making indoor conditions much more comfortable.  The game was very exciting and all the Icelanders around us were so into cheering for their team.  People kept yelling "álfram ísland!" which means "go iceland!" in Icelandic as well as doing a viking cheer that includes clapping and yelling "huh!"  The game ended with a 1-1 tie with both goals being scored in the first half.  All the Icelanders around us seemed happy with the result and simply excited that their national team had finally qualified for the world cup.

From the movie theater, we walked to Reykjavik city hall to go on a bus tour with the Njordjobb participants working near Reykjavik.  We hiked up a mountain in Úlfarsfell which had beautiful views with mountains and ocean that is in included the photos below.  On the hike I had the chance to meet Njordjobb participants from Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, and the Faroe Islands and learn about their diverse cultural backgrounds!  

After the hike, we visited a nearby swimming pool with three water slides that we could go down.  Even though the only other people going down the slides were children, it didn't stop us from trying each slide and having fun.  I loved sitting in the hot geothermally heated pools then going into the cold pool to cool off for a couple seconds before returning to the hot pool and repeating the cycle.  Next we a had quick dinner of hot dogs in a local park that had a grill and got back on the bus for the last stop on the tour: þingvellir.  Þingvellir is a beautiful national park in Bláskógabyggð (southwest Iceland, northeast of Reykjavik about 25 miles).  The original location of alþing, Iceland's parliament, þingvellir was chosen as a more central and accessible location for chieftains from each region of Iceland to gather as a general assembly.  This location was used from 930 until 1271 to pass laws and carry out executions as punishment for those who committed high level crimes.  At the time, men were executed by beheading and women by drowning.  None of the temporary turf dwellings made from the time period þingvellir was used remain there today.  A breathtaking landscape, þingvellir lies on the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates causing the landscape to change slowly over time due to frequent earthquakes and  the continental drift.

Here are photos of the movie theater where we matched the world cup game and wore matching world cup 2018 hats to.  The bottom photo is of the flea market.

Here are some photos of the hike up the mountain in Úlfarsfell:

Here are some photos of þingvellir:

Tomorrow, June 17th, is the national holiday of Iceland so it should be full of fun activities and there will be an outdoor concert!  Hopefully the weather will be better than today!